4/21/2006 @ 10:20AM

Readers Say

Breathtaking Claims

“Trouble Breathing” (Apr. 24) uncritically repeats a tale told by a paid plaintiff attorney’s consultant: that four out of five deaths from asthma are caused by Advair and Serevent. This is a sensational claim, one that would be easy to perform a reality check on. Serevent wasn’t introduced to the U.S. until 1994. So have asthma deaths quintupled since then? The answer is no. Asthma deaths in the U.S. have steadily decreased over the last decade, even though the vast majority of asthma prescriptions are now for Advair–versus zero before 2000. How on earth can Advair be the cause of 80% of asthma deaths? The bias of the story is evident from the characterization of Glaxo having “deemed statistically insignificant” a difference in a study. A statistical result either is or isn’t statistically significant–subjectivity plays no role in making such a judgment. Yet your story tries to improperly impugn sinister motives to one who performs basic science. Further, you imply that a Glaxo denial of a problem is evidence of wrongdoing. How, precisely, is an accused company supposed to defend itself?

Ted Frank

Resident Fellow

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Washington, D.C.

I appreciate your having the courage to write this story. This past Thanksgiving I lost my 33-year-old brother John as a result of his being prescribed an asthma drug. Two family members, both doctors, believe his death was a result of this prescription. John had an allergy to Serevent and was repeatedly prescribed Advair. On behalf of my family, especially my brother, thank you for not letting the deaths caused by these kinds of medicines go unnoticed.

Melinda Isabella

West Long Branch, N.J.

Shoetopia

Thank you for perpetuating the stereotype of the backward, tree-hugging progressive in “Self-Loathing Sneakers” (Mar. 27). Your description of $95 sneakers making perfect footwear for a “black-clad, window-breaking anarchist” was well put. What would the world come to if people wore shoes made in fair union labor factories paying a reasonable cost to produce them, with soles coming from recycled car tires? Ridiculous! Everyone knows that the only way to really make money is to outsource your labor to places with lower environmental standards and limited child labor laws, while paying workers no more than 95 cents a week. Kalle Lasn, chief executive of Blackspot, must be out of his mind to attempt fighting capitalism with capitalism. Who could possibly think to change the system from within?

Aric Shapiro

Reno, Nev.

Slick Idea

While the amount of money rushing into private equity may be alarming–which you describe in “Private Inequity” (Mar. 13)–to a vice president of acquisitions it simply appears to be a natural rejection of the overregulation of public markets. While during the 1980s and 1990s I may have had visions of taking our company public, I hold no such desires now. Regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, the Patriot Act and shareholder activism leave me and my management team cold. Being public opens you to up to Monday morning quarterbacking; private equity provides us with another avenue of capital for growth other than traditional financing. The only time we’d use the public equity markets now is if we were exiting the business.

Dan Fleckenstein

Vice President, Acquisitions

RPF Oil Company

Flint, Mich.

Transparent Argument

The cash reporting requirement, which Daniel J. Mitchell denigrates in “The $7 Billion Laundry Bill” (On My Mind, Apr. 17), has become hugely valuable to law enforcement in combating illicit finance. He also misleads readers about the role of the Bank Secrecy Act in protecting our financial system and collecting highly useful information to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The act, which is administered by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, is the foundation of such efforts. Unlike virtually any other federal regulatory scheme, it allows financial institutions to tailor their compliance programs directly to the risks posed by their operations. We are devoted to striking the right balance between the burden and the obligations placed on our financial institutions and the value of the information collected for law enforcement. Mistakes will happen. But the mistakes cannot serve as the focal point for undermining cash reporting requirements that have proved to be of tremendous value to our financial system.

Robert W. Werner

Director

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

U.S. Department of the Treasury

Washington, D.C.

End Dwarf Tossing

William Baldwin still doesn’t get it. In his most recent column, “Bigness and Badness” (Side Lines, Apr. 17), he presents a classic false dichotomy–an argument that would earn an F in Logic 101 at any university. We need to cut down to size the mercantile class as well as the political class. In America today we see debauched CEOs tossing dwarfs and snorting cocaine hidden in the ashtrays of their Lexuses, while the “virtual” political class, 21st-century carpetbaggers, sit on their duffs doing nothing.